The Daily Yonder

In 1890 the Census Bureau had found the American West so densely populated that the frontier effectively vanished. No more was there a place so far removed from civilization as to be untamed wilderness. America, the Census Bureau declared, was settled. The historian Frederick Jackson Turner lamented this development three years later in his famous Frontier Thesis. “American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier,” he wrote.

Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week. Margiana Petersen-Rockney remembers a time when climate change wasn’t the politically polarized issue it is today.

Every week, Yonder Radio brings rural conversations with national reach to listeners around the country. This week, we start out with a conversation with Daily Yonder reporter Ilana Newman who brings us a story from Illinois, where community members are trying to get state policy passed that would stop CO2 pipeline companies from using eminent domain to build pipelines.

Recent headlines have highlighted rising Affordable Care Act (ACA) plan enrollment in Texas, but statewide gains mask uneven trends across different communities. While overall enrollment in Texas increased by about 5%, enrollment fell more than 3% in rural areas and dropped roughly 5% in exurban counties, or metropolitan counties where at least one-third of residents live in rural-designated census blocks.

Fifty years ago, my small rural high school’s yearbook committee made a bold choice: A yearbook cover printed in color was unusual back then. And this was vivid color. The image wrapping front-to-back featured a bald eagle clutching the Stars and Stripes and a stylized U.S. Constitution with its bold heading of We the People. We were now The People. We were eager to honor our nation’s past as we ventured forth to build its future. 1776 to 1976. Two hundred years.

The Bastrop County Public Health Department, the first new local health department established in Texas in more than 30 years, is turning to digital tools to address growing mental health needs in one of the state’s rapidly expanding exurban counties. After conducting community discussion groups across Bastrop County, public health officials found that residents consistently identified mental health support and easier access to care as urgent priorities.

Even though I’m sure she’s said it hundreds of times, she can never say it with a straight face. “We’re the Happy Hookers!” Jerre McDanald cheerily declares as she stands to introduce herself. And while I’ve seen her say this countless times to people as an introduction, it never fails to get a laugh. Jerre is at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco, Washington with a group of 10 women that were asked to participate in a story circle led by Rural Assembly about women and fiber arts.

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. The American buffalo—those ornery, hairy prairie beasts that reign as the official mammal of the United States—have joined wind turbines, electric cars and climate researchers in the cross hairs of the Trump administration.

In southeastern Kentucky, where provider shortages, persistent poverty, and geographic isolation continue to shape daily life, one rural health center is quietly building a healthcare workforce from within its own community.

How closely have you been following the latest stories from rural communities across the country? From migrating birds and Superman to data centers and border walls, this month’s news highlights the challenges, celebrations, and resistance shaping rural life. Take this short quiz to see what you know.